Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
Acknowledgements: G. Chapdelaine, L. Limatola, and R. Gendler.
Acknowledgements: G. Chapdelaine, L. Limatola, and R. Gendler.
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured this
image of nearby spiral galaxy Messier 61, also known as NGC 4303. The
galaxy, located only 55 million light-years away from Earth, is roughly
the size of the Milky Way, with a diameter of around 100 000
light-years. The galaxy is notable for one particular reason — six
supernovae have been observed within Messier 61, a total that places it
in the top handful of galaxies alongside Messier 83, also with six,
and NGC 6946, with a grand total of nine observed supernovae.
In this Hubble image the galaxy is seen face-on as if
posing for a photograph, allowing us to study its structure closely.
The spiral arms can be seen in stunning detail, swirling inwards to the
very centre of the galaxy, where they form a smaller, intensely bright
spiral. In the outer regions, these vast arms are sprinkled with
bright blue regions where new stars are being formed from hot, dense
clouds of gas.
Messier 61 is part of the Virgo Galaxy Cluster, a massive group of
galaxies in the constellation of Virgo (the Virgin). Galaxy clusters,
or groups of galaxies, are among the biggest structures in the Universe
to be held together by gravity alone. The Virgo Cluster contains more
than 1300 galaxies and forms the central region of the Local
Supercluster, an even bigger gathering of galaxies.
The image was taken using data from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 2. Different versions of this image were submitted to the Hubble’s Hidden Treasures image processing competition by contestants Gilles Chapdelaine, Luca Limatola, and Robert Gendler.
Links
Source: ESA/Hubble - Space Telescope
